Für Elise

The story of the piece

Beethoven wrote "Für Elise" in April 1810, but he never had it printed. In 1822 he went back to the sketches and reworked them while choosing old short piano pieces for publication, yet even then the piece did not go to print. It was published in 1867 by the Beethoven scholar Ludwig Nohl, forty years after the composer's death. Nohl said he had seen the autograph, inscribed "Für Elise" and dated "27 April". The year, 1810, comes from the surviving sketches: the same leaf holds sketches for the music to Egmont and for a march from that year. The autograph itself is lost, so Nohl's reading cannot be checked.

Who Elise was is unknown. According to Nohl, the manuscript came from the estate of Therese Malfatti. Beethoven taught her the piano, was in love with her and in 1810 wanted to marry her, but she turned him down. Hence the best-known guess: Nohl read "Elise" where "Therese" was written. Other candidates were put forward later, the singer Elisabeth Röckel for one, but none of these theories is proven.

The piece is a rondo: its opening theme is heard three times, with two episodes of different music between its appearances. The course plays only the theme, part A, bars 1–22. In lesson 05 it is the easy version: the right hand plays the same notes written in 3/4 with every value doubled, the left one bass note at a time, without the pedal. In lesson 10 it is the original as printed by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1888: in 3/8, with the left-hand arpeggios and the pedal. The episodes stay outside the course.